Messages

to Tiehan:

Putting aside who gave the fox his name or why, now that you mention that it's an Italian name, I agree that something else may be better. When I was trying to determine the origin of the characters, my first impression was that the Fox looked kind of Germanic. But there haven't been many Germanic names suggested for him. I just chose what I thought sounded best from what was available.

About the rabbit: while there isn't much information presently, I believe punipen once said that he will be 'an important character' or something along those lines. And he is also consistently one of the last characters depicted; his promotion poster was revealed last, for instance. That may just be some misdirection on Dudedle's part, but it suggests to me that he'll be one of the later opponents. And given the way that he's dressed, I don't think it's too far gone to assume that he may be a nobleman of some sort. Well, that's all just speculation, but that partially informed some of my ideas.

It may be true that certain names will suggest an immediate connection, but why should that necessarily be an issue anyway? I think the problem here is that Alcatraz sounds anachronistic because of the image it conjures for people. I suppose the danger of the name sounding misplaced, especially when the original meaning is not widely known, is too great to use it. But it seems kind of boring to ignore a possibility just because the reference isn't immediately obvious to the majority. That said, upon further review, I'm starting to think that it's a bad idea to compare the Lion to a pelican, which I'd think you'd be more concerned about. Although it's a bird of prey, it's not considered a very imposing one. And it doesn't fit his motif at all. (Plus, as I have just now remembered, since this world is populated by numerous kemonos already, it would be kind of weird to give a character a name that refers to another species.)

to Wanfang:

Khaldun isn't meant to imply literal immortality. The name could suggest that he's striving towards a sort of immortality, since he appears to be a religious official. A quick search reveals that a historical figure carried the name, albeit as a surname.

[BEAR]

Given all of the names suggested thus far, here are some of my favorites:

BEAR - Tharsix grew on me, so that has my support. Although, if it's a slave name, does that mean he had a name before that which might come up in the ending or something? Unless he was born into slavery...
CAT - I think Cyrus is fine. Although Tiehan's slight change to Cyril is pretty good too; either one would work.
HUSKY - I remember before that someone suggested Volga, and I really like that name. But Vladislav is also quite good. Ha, what can I say, I think a 'V' name suits the Husky well!
EAGLE - I'm still undecided on this. Niyol, Nodin, Aquilo, and Wambli all sound good, but I can't choose just one yet.
BULL - Marduk, Ezekiel, and Darius all sound like interesting names.
PANTHER - Kakula sounds kind of wild, fitting for this guy! A page I looked at said that it supposedly means "cardamom", a type of spice. And he seems spicy, all right.
FOX - For no good reason, I really like Stuart for him. I say "no good reason" because Stuart means "steward", and he doesn't seem to be one in any way. Ah well. Beyond that, I also like Salvatore.
LION - Grrr, I don't care how silly it sounds, I liked the suggestion of Alcatraz. Didja know it's a Spanish word that means pelican?! His armor in his latest design looks kind of Gothic, so a Spanish name might be suitable. And as unfitting as a name that means "pelican" may seem, those are birds of prey. If not Alcatraz, then I like Maximus also.
RABBIT - Presto means "quickness", a fit name for a rabbit magician. Someone earlier also suggested Aaron, which means "towering, powerful".
TANUKI - Masashige, Ryota, and Sanjirou all seem like decent names.

There are also some names that I would suggest myself.

TANUKI: I'm still hawking the name Ohmori / Oomori for him. Probably with the kanji for "forest", although there are a couple other readings that would work.
RABBIT: Nicholas ("people's victory"), Basil ("king"), Dragomir ("precious peace").
BULL: Khaldun (Egyptian for "immortal").
PANTHER: Githinji ("butcher") or Zahur ("flower"... it seems ironic, but he's dressed colorfully, looks very flexible, and is probably very fertile!  Ha ha).

I frittered away a few or so hours looking up names, so here are suggestions for four more of the characters...
(I tried to pick names that roughly matched their ethnicity, as with the tanuki.  My favorites are near the top.)

EAGLE
His outfit looked Scottish to me, so I tried for Scottish-Gaelic names, mostly.  But I also looked at some other Native-American ones.

MacNeal: 'son of Neil', Neil is generally thought to mean 'champion', but may also come from the Gaelic for 'cloud'.
This name I considered because it flowed similarly to 'mullach' and 'monaidh', which mean 'summit' and 'mountain' respectively but had no names derived from them.  Hnn...  Well, as far as sound and meaning go, it feels good.
There's also a Navajo name, Niyol, which means 'wind' if that would be better.

Montague (Norman French): place name from 'pointed hill' or 'mountain'.

Erskine: 'from the heights'.

Kachada/Qochata: Hopi name meaning 'white man'.  Well, he does have white feathers...?

Kwatoko: Hopi name meaning 'bird with big beak'.

Motega: 'new arrow'.

Muraco: 'white moon'.

Nodin: 'wind'.

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BULL
Mostly tried for Egyptian names, but given the time period, I also looked for Arabic names as well... not that I picked many...

Hanbal: 'Pristine / pure'. (Egyptian)
Or, for something a little more mainstream, Hannibal which means 'grace of Ba'al (and Ba'al means lord or master, a name often used for lesser gods)'.

Haji/Hadji: 'Born during the pilgrimage'. (Egyptian)  This might actually be a horrible choice, as apparently Hadji is also used as a derogatory term.  But it still is a name...

Ishaq: Egyptian name meaning 'laughs'.

Kazemde: 'Ambassador'. (Egyptian)  I wonder what a priest, of all people, is fighting in this tournament for.  That's kind of the thought that lead to me picking out this name.

Khaldun: Egyptian name meaning 'immortal'.

Runihura: Egyptian name meaning 'destroyer'.

Abdal: seems to mean 'servant'. (Arabic)

Kasib: 'fertile'. (Arabic)

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PANTHER
I looked for African names here.

Zahur (ZAEH-er): "flower". (Swahili/Egyptian)  Partly I chose this to be ironic, but then again, he is very colorful and flexible, so perhaps it suits him?

Githinji (git-hi-nji, gi-thin-ji): "butcher".

Haben: "pride".

Gahiji (gah-HEE-jee): "the hunter". (Rwanda)

Machupa (mac-hu-pa, ma-ch-upa): "one who loves drinking". (Swahili)  Heh, not that we know if he drinks or not, but he certainly LOOKS rather rowdy...

Ubaya: "bad feeling". (Swahili)

Waitimu (wah-ee-tee-moh): "born of spear". (Kikuyu)

Watende (w-AO-tah-ND): "there shall be no revenge".

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RABBIT
Focused on Romanian names, er, well... just because?  There weren't very many, though.

Dragomir: "Precious peace". Romanian name composed of the Slavic elements dorogo "precious" and mir "peace."  He has a mild expression, so it's a little suitable...

Viorel: Romanian name meaning "bluebell."  Because of his ears, and there's a bluebell-like flower called a harebell, ha ha.  Plus, I just like the sound.

Liviu: Romanian form of Roman Livius, possibly meaning "bluish."
Or a cultural variant, Livo.

Nicolae: Romanian form of Nicholas, meaning "victory of the people".

Radu: Romanian pet form of longer names containing the Slavic element rad, meaning "happy".

Stelian: Romanian form of Greek Stylianos, meaning "pillar".

Vasile: Romanian form of English Basil, meaning "king".

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I don't know, a lot of them sound kind of outlandish, but it was fun looking them up anyway.  Sorry for such a huge post.

Names, huh.  Well, for the fighter-type characters, I still need time to try to look up name information, so I have nothing to offer there at the moment, unfortunately.

However, I did somehow come up with a name for the tanuki off the top of my head.
"Oomori" (or "Ohmori", depending on how you would romanize it).
I realize he doesn't HAVE to have a Japanese name, but I thought it wasn't a bad start.  I liked the sound of it, plus there are some other factors which I feel make it suitable.
To begin with, when I looked it up in a Japanese-to-English dictionary's name database, I saw that its meaning can be read a few different ways depending on which kanji is used for 'mori': 'big forest' (he certainly has a wood-magic motif going on), 'great protector' (sporting that plate armor, after all, and my impression so far has been that he's like a forest guardian), or 'large serving' (which he must be having to get a belly like that, lol).
Also, the broad vowel sounds make a nice audiovisual parallel to his rotund figure, hee hee.
Granted, the dictionary entry said that it's more of a family name, but there are examples over time of surnames becoming given names and vice-versa, at least in western cultures.
I don't know if the name really fits the period, but no one has said if that's a major concern or not.

Say, sorry for a tangent, but I was wondering - this is going to be part RPG, a genre occasionally known, sometimes derisively, for its abundance of dialogue.  When you beat the various bosses in your character's storyline, will it be possible to talk to them afterwards?  That could get in the way of Dudedle's plans for the plot's overall direction, and it could be awkward unless there were enough responses to cover the severity of 'punishment' they received, which would probably be too much work.  But since they're not actually getting slain or anything, they could be just a couple of menu choices away in a holding area or such, and it could expand their character by letting us see how they handle talking to their opponent after losing.  It might be kind of unnecessary since the focus so far has been on gameplay, and the CGs will probably cover it, but I'm just curious if that's something the studio has considered or planned.

Hello~ Just call me Phageling! An odd spook with ecletic tastes, one of which is male beauty~! I'm generally quiet unless I feel like I have something useful to say - partly because I have a habit of embarrassing myself. -_- Nonetheless, I hope to support this fine studio in some way.